With recreational marijuana sales now legal in California, one lawmaker wants to find out whether drugged driving is going to be a significant problem.

Assemblyman Ed Chau (D-Arcadia) has introduced a bill that would require all local law enforcement agencies to file annual reports with the state Department of Motor Vehicles detailing the number of arrests made for driving under the influence and the number of those arrests in which pot was suspected to be the substance causing impairment.

“Currently, the state has no uniform mechanism in place to evaluate cannabis drugged driving arrests as a result of legalization,” Chau said.

GOP gubernatorial candidate John Cox told supporters on Wednesday that he was putting another $1 million of his money into his campaign, adding to his significant financial advantage among Republican candidates in the race.

“While we have gathered nearly 5,000 individual donors across California, it's also important that I show continued investment in my campaign,” Cox emailed supporters.

Feb. 7, 2018, 9:00 p.m.

A motorist prepares to gas up her vehicle in San Rafael, Calif., in 2015. The state's gas tax increases are expected to remain controversial throughout 2018. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Likely voters are divided over a proposed initiative that would repeal recent increases in California’s gas tax and vehicle fees to pay for road and bridge repairs and mass transit improvements, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday.

The repeal of the gas tax is supported by 47% of likely voters and opposed by 48%, according to the statewide survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Repeal is supported by 61% of Republican voters and 52% of independents, but by only 39% of Democrats.

With less than four months to go until the June 5 primary, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are running practically neck and neck in the 2018 race for governor, according to a new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

California’s U.S. Senate race is a much different story. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is seeking a fifth full term, leads by a wide margin over her most formidable challenger, state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León of Los Angeles, the survey found.

All four of those top candidates are Democrats, showing just how dismal the prospects are for a Republican Party that has not won a statewide election in California since 2006.

Feb. 7, 2018, 8:14 p.m.

The woman gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom had an affair with when he was mayor of San Francisco spoke out about their relationship on Wednesday after questions about the liaison emerged in the governor’s race.

Feb. 7, 2018, 4:58 p.m.

Supporters of single-payer healthcare march to the Capitol in Sacramento in 2017. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

A months-long series of informational hearings on achieving universal health coverage in California culminated Wednesday with experts voicing widespread praise for creating a single-payer system, but starkly different opinions on the pace of such an overhaul.

The Assembly convened hearings in the face of activist outrage with last year’s shelving of SB 562, an ambitious bill that would establish a state-funded healthcare system to cover nearly all of Californians’ medical costs without requiring premiums or co-pays.

Proponents of SB 562, including its sponsors, the California Nurses Assn., continued their call for Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) to advance the bill Wednesday, rolling out a new analysis finding that between 60% and 80% of denials for care issued by insurance companies were overturned by state regulators. The data, they argued, underscored the need to dramatically reduce the role of private insurance companies in Californians’ healthcare.

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Feb. 7, 2018, 4:51 p.m.

At 10:04 a.m. Washington time, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi stood up in the House chamber and began speaking. For more than eight hours, she stood in four-inch heels, reading the stories of people brought to the country illegally as children, the people known as “Dreamers.”

Feb. 7, 2018, 3:19 p.m.

The decision by leaders of the California Legislature to voluntarily disclose some records related to sexual misconduct investigations could, under a new proposal, become state law.

On Tuesday, the Assembly Judiciary Committee introduced legislation to codify the guidelines unveiled last month for releasing records. Those rules were announced in the wake of conversations between Los Angeles Times attorneys and legislative officials, but do not have the force of law if future lawmakers reverse course.

“We are faced with a unique opportunity to fix some policies that should have been fixed a long time ago,” said Assemblyman Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley), the committee chairman.